In Massingir the registration posts visited – namely, the Graça Machel Secondary School, mobile brigades nos. 305 and 306, 6th neighbourhood EPC, and the technical school – showed very low levels of voter turnout. They were registering between 5 and 9 voters a day. Each registration book contains 800 voters and only now has the Technical School registration post closed its second voter registration book. Brigades at other schools have not even managed to close the first book. This is in contrast with what is happening in many parts of the country, where the brigades have already closed more than five books.
This Monday (29 May), our correspondents in Massingir visited the Tihovene B and A EPC registration posts. In Tihovene B, between 07.00 and 09.28, only one voter registered, In Tihovene A, by 11:45 not a single voter had yet registered.
In the town of Macia, the situation is better. The registration posts at the Macia Seconday School, the Macia Third Neighbourhood School, and the Macia primary school, have already closed the fourth book, but they complain that few voters have shown up in recent days.
In Mandlakazi, attendance at the posts is much better in the centre of the town, where they are still managing to register more than 50 voters a day. For example, in the post at the Eduardo Mondlane 1st and 2nd degree EP, on Friday (26 May) there was a good turnout, with about 20 voters in the queue. By 12.00, 16 voters had been registered. On the previous days, Wednesday and Thursday, 152 and 86 voters were registered, respectively. There was also good attendance at the post in the Maguiguane EPC.
But in the Rural Family School of Mandlakazi, the scenario is completely different. During the time our correspondents were present at the post, not a single voter registered. One of the brigade members, when asked about voter attendance, merely shook his head, indicating that he did not want to answer.
At the post set up in the CAIP, voter attendance was also feeble. By midday, only seven voters had registered.
In Xai-Xai city, the scenario was the same. The brigade stationed at the Amilcar Cabral EPC, in the Coca-Missava neighbourhood 6, had only registered three voters when our correspondents visited. The supervisor and the data input operator complained of the poor attendance by voters. On the previous day, Thursday (25 May), the post only registered 13 voters in the entire day. They say they have filled three registration books and in recent days, the machine has never broken down.
In the Unit “11” EPC, in the eleventh neighbourhood of Xai-Xai city, not a single voter was there when we visited the registration post. The brigade had also not closed the fourth registration book.
This Tuesday (30 May), four days from the end of the registration, our correspondents visited dozens of registration posts. The scenario remains the same as described in the previous issue of the Bulletin: many posts without voters.
For example, the brigade at the 25 June Primary School, in Chibuto, is only managing to register about 10 voters a day, and they only appear in the afternoon.
In Bilene, at the Mahungo EP registration post. the supervisor said there are no voters to register. When our correspondents were at this post, not a single voter arrived to register.
The post at the Josina Machel – Tsatsene Secondary School on Bilene Beach had registered five voters by mid-afternoon. The brigade will move on to the zone of Chilengue.
In Mandlakazi, the post at the Macave EPC had registered two voters by 09.30
At the EPC in the 3rd neighbourhood of Chókwè City, there was a noteworthy attendance of at least ten voters in the queue, but at the Muchakwuarine EPC there was not even one voter in the queue.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
In Massingir town, at the Technical School brigade, there was more movement than on the previous day. In the morning 13 voters registered.
Mobile is kept in the house of a retired teacher in Chókwè: The equipment (known as a mobile ID), used at the registration post of the EPC in the 2nd Neighbourhood of Chókwè City is not kept at the STAE district headquarters, but in the home of a retired teacher known as “Grandpa Tchemane”.
Maganja town has already registered 123.9% of its voters: According to the district electoral authorities, by Friday (26 May), the town of Maganja da Costa, Zambézia, had already registered 16,300 voters, which is over 3,000 more than its target. It was expected that 13,100 voters would register just in the town.
But for the entire Maganja da Costa district, 72,500 voters have been registered. This is 81.9% of the total envisaged of 88,800 voters.
